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Fig. 2 | BMC Plant Biology

Fig. 2

From: Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene

Fig. 2

A simplified conceptual model depicting the types of plant speciation and the drivers of plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Three identified plant speciation accelerators, i.e., cities, polar regions, and botanical gardens are illustrated to show how climate warming might change plant evolution in the future. The contribution to plant speciation displayed from the top to bottom are: autopolyploid speciation, allopolyploid speciation, and chromosomal rearrangements. The main drivers of plant extinction displayed from right to left are: habitat loss, deforestation, land use change, climate change, and pollution. The solid lines denote the biological and ecological processes of plant speciation and extinction, in which the green ones denote the corresponding speciation types, and the red ones denote the five drivers of plant extinction. The thickness of the arrow denotes the relative strength of the contributions. It should be noted that climate change accelerates plant speciation while drives plant extinction either, and human population increase as the primary driver of plant extinction. Both new plant species and their progenitors of plant species may face same extinction risk in the Anthropocene, but the new plant species are more likely to survive due to their stronger natural adaptability to climate change [38]

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